MUCH MORE THAN A ‘SECOND CAR’: FAMILIES GET CHARGED UP ABOUT ALL-ELECTRIC NISSAN LEAF

NEWS

Mar. 12, 2015

LONDON - Families across Europe are getting charged up as they ditch their petrol or diesel cars in favour of the all-electric Nissan LEAF. Independent research by expert anthropologists Stripe Partners shows that families are favouring their electric vehicles over traditional combustion alternatives.

The first detailed study of its kind into family motoring, the findings showed that all-electric vehicles such as the Nissan LEAF are no longer viewed as the “second car” having quickly become the primary family vehicle.

Shanaya Shah from Borehamwood in Hertfordshire, UK, said: “Initially, we had bought the Nissan LEAF as a second car, but due to its low operating costs and impressive range the LEAF has really proven itself and has become the main family car.”

As part of the wider study, Nissan found that the average European family* spend 230 hours together in their car over the course of a year, spending the equivalent of 13,800 minutes[i] (230 hours or 9.5 days) in the car together.

And with many of these journeys travelled over very short distances, it’s no wonder that the families surveyed are switched on to the benefits of owning an electric car. The average family were travelling just under 75 km a week, or just 3,870 km a year together, for family purposes.[ii]

The anthropological study which focused on families in the UK and Norway**, was designed to assess the real-life capabilities of electric vehicles within the demands and dynamics of the average European household.

Dag Eliason, a father of two from Harestua, Norway, explained that although they had use of two cars, their Nissan LEAF had covered 30,000 km last year, whilst their other car, a petrol vehicle, did only 5,000 km.

This insight comes as Nissan has just released figures that European owners of its 100 percent electric Nissan LEAF travel 40 percent further per year (16,588 km) than the European average for an internal combustion-powered vehicle (11,539 km±).

Commenting on the research, Jean-Pierre Diernaz, Director of electric vehicles for Nissan in Europe, said: “These findings really put to bed the myth that the Nissan LEAF can only serve as a ‘second car’ in most households. What’s more, the study demonstrates our long-held belief that Electric Vehicle ownership is the smart choice for families looking for low running costs and practicality.

“Our research shows that 85% of LEAF owners would buy an EV again and as many as 97% would recommend their LEAF to friends and family.” The Nissan LEAF is the world’s best-selling all-electric vehicle amassing over 165,000 sales since its launch in 2010 and a 25% share of the EV market in Europe. To date, Nissan LEAF owners have covered more than one billion all-electric kilometres.

** Norway and UK were selected as they make up half of the current LEAF sales in FY14.

The survey was carried out online.

Fieldwork was undertaken between 27th October - 7th November 2014

± Average is calculated from 2013 market specific annual average statistics using data from the UK, France, Spain Italy, Sweden and Norway. An even weighting was applied to each country to find a ‘European Average’. A German statistic was not used in the European average as the raw data is not available and all average kilometre figures quoted are estimates.